Light Touch Releases Oxytocin and Soothes the Polyvagal System

Here is another short extract from Robin Bernhard's article "Using Tellington TTouch Body Wraps with Traumatic Brain Injury"

"... A study designed to explore the benefits of massage was expected to demonstrate that massage supports the immune system by boosting the body's levels of oxytocin, "the trust hormone", and thereby indirectly reducing the body's secretion of cortisol, "the stress hormone". Both groups in the study, funded by the U.S.  National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, showed an increase of oxytocin, but the people in the control group who received "light touch" actually produced more oxytocin, and therefore less cortisol, than the people in the deep touch group. This news was interesting, since all Tellington TTouch falls into the category of light touch.

Since oxytocin is the neuropeptide of trust and safety, it would be the perfect antidote to the fight/flight/freeze response. (...) Just touching another person in a kind way or hugging a pet can release oxytocin. (...) Also of great interest, it has been shown in laboratory studies that oxytocin can completely erase old memory and is being studied as a new therapy for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Studies show that oxytocin produces the right attitude for learning. It reduces anxiety and improves social learning in autistic children by activating the right hemisphere of the brain associated with bonding and emotional recognition. It is believed to create an inner atmosphere of safety that promotes flexibility and openness to change. Maybe oxytocin plays a role in erasing or altering the old memory and providing a neuropeptide source for positive feeling. This neuropeptide could be released in an instant and the positive feeling would truly contradict a memory that was formed during fight/flight/freeze or faint. It would satisfy both conditions of the brain's rules for change."